wyeth studies

in my modest art book library i have a book of andrew wyeth landscapes, which is appropriately called unknown terrain: the landscapes of andrew wyeth. while his art ruffles a decent amount of feathers in the art world (some find his work to be terribly predictable and kitschy, particularly in the avant-garde realm), i find some of it to be really lovely and quiet. my favorite works in the book, however, are the studies that preceded actual finished paintings. so that is what i want to show you today. (excuse the poor quality of some of these images, i don't have a scanner and photographing pages of a book doesn't often come out so well.)

i've always been drawn to fragmented images like these, where a part of a thing sort of floats in negative space. i love the unfinished, unvarnished look of these. perhaps part of their allure is that i can actually picture the artist working out the angles and curves of his subject in sketches + studies such as these. as a student of printmaking, i would often save proofs of lithographs + engravings, liking the roughness of the images, and the unplanned arrangement of print on paper.

and now—off into this sultry thursday...!